After some dithering back and forth, ripping back the front placket and reknitting it, I present my re-worked and adapted khaki vest, mid-block:

The color variation is due to some parts still being wetter than others. I've used US size 1 14-inch straights as blocking wires for the vest's points. Thanks to the texture pattern I've used, plus the edging, they don't really curl, but I did want them to start life as straight as possible.

As far as the interminable edging goes - it wasn't that bad. I knit it on as described before, then seamed down the free facing edge on the back. I did end up making the extra wide, double thick buttonhole bands, and I did end up working the entire buttonhole band/neck edge in one pass - shaping it with decreases on both sides to match. And I did end up using the Neatby Magic Buttonhole in my double-thick placket.

Why did I go back to the heavy placket when I had whined about it before? Mostly because the vest didn't fit as well without it. The heaviness seems to act a bit like a stomacher in a 1600s gown. It lends stability and structure to the center of the piece and prevents Dread Buttonhole Stretch, even when worn (that gap-itis that happens when buttoned knitting stretches into scallops around the buttons.) I did go back and readjust the ratio of picking up and knitting, which did help a bit. So did the final seaming, which squished the placket flat (I may still go back and steam this edge to make it even more flat).

On the buttonholes - I am not comfortable explaining in detail the Magic Buttonhole working method in detail. It's unique and it's Lucy's, available in her leaflets and workshops, and in the Fall 2004 issue of InkKnitters. But I will say that her method is pretzel-clever, and much easier to work than it looks. There's a very simple logic to it, and the stitches to be grafted and the direction for each stitch to be taken are all very clearly laid out. I did do one minor modification - instead of working this buttonhole on a placket that was picked up and knit out perpendicular to the direction of the body piece's knitting, I worked it on a band that was knit in the same direction as the main piece. The perpendicular way is a bit easier to achieve because of the side-by-side alignment of the two buttonhole-to-be strips of scrap yarn, but with a bit of patience and fiddling doing it the other way is perfectly achievable.

Finally, for those of you who asked - the kids and I had fun at the Gore Place Sheepshearing Festival this year. But it does seem to be headed away from its sheep and yarn focus a bit. There are still both hand snip and electric clipper shearers, and there's still a sheep dog demo; but the spinning and weaving demo tent formerly staffed by the Boston area spinners and dyers guild was missing - a big loss. Also, there was only one sparsely populated wool/yarn/spinning vendors' tent - down from two in years past. It's possible that the threat of really bad weather kept away some of the yarn people, but I see far less foot traffic through the yarn tent than in years past. It's possible that low sales are the root cause of the lack of vendors.

Still, in spite of low yarn availability, we did enjoy the day and I did find some nice things to buy. First, I got a couple more skeins of Nicks Meadow Farm rustic Maine style heavy worsted/Aran, this time in barn red. He was also selling a softer Merino this year, but I got the older yarn to eke out some leftovers from previous purchases.

I also got a few skeins of a small producer's yarn that's new to me. Swift River Farm was showing Shetland and Shetland-silk blends. They offer both off-the-sheep undyed yarn colors, and dyed yarns. I got some of their Prescott, a fingering-weight 95% Shetland/5% silk in a natural unbleached white. Prescott is labeled with a gauge of 32-35 stitches over 4 inches on US #3 or #4. It's a lofty two-ply in that pleasing Shetland texture, but a bit softer due to the silk. My guess is that it could be knit down to 8 to 9 spi, but that it would also look good at 6.5 to 7 spi. Of course gauge swatching is called for here since without it all I can do is guess. I'm leaning towards using it to make one or two lacy scarves as holiday gifts, along the lines of the Spring Lightning scarf I did a couple of years back. But playing with different lacy patterns for both the center and the edging.

I'm not sure what I will be knitting next alongside the Galaga hat (which also progresses). In the mean time, my "upstairs knitting" has been finishing off a couple of pairs of started but not yet completed socks - each pair begun as a briefcase project to do in the corners of time at lunch at work, or on plane flights. One can never have too many socks.

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Techknitting is posting an interesting series on stranding, and as part of it, mentioned the use of Strickfingerhuts (knitting yarn guides/knitting thimbles), linking back to my original post on the subject.

For those who are unfamiliar with them, they are those gizmos that sit on the end of the left hand index finger, that are used by Continental style knitters (pickers) to hold and separate two or more yarns while doing stranded colorwork.

Adding some more detail on the subject, I'd like to address a problem TK points out as being common among those who hold two yarns in one hand while stranding - differential feed.

If a row has more or less equal numbers of stitches of both colors, both yarn strands are consumed at the same rate. But if a row has lots of Color A, but very little Color B, A will be eaten at a much greater rate, eventually causing the knitter to readjust his or her grasp of the yarn to even things out.

Those of us who do use Strickfingerhuts find that the differential feed rate problem is greatly minimized compared to trying to hold both yarns in the left hand unassisted. Yes, eventually the difference in yarn consumption catches up with us and we have to yank the strands even, but no where near as often.

We do however find that over time we prefer to put the dominant color (the color most represented on a row) in either the left or right eyelet to minimize the feed problem. There's no hard and fast rule to this, it's a matter of personal preference.

In stockinette in the round, I prefer to have the dominant color in the right eyelet, and the less represented color in the left. This helps when I lock in my floats:

Although I usually work stranding in the round, occasionally I have to do it in the flat. If I'm knitting stockinette in the flat using a Strickfingerhut, and I'm on the purl side, I prefer to have the dominant color in the left hand eyelet.

For the record, I notice no difference in the appearance of the finished product if I mix eyelets - sometimes putting the dominant color in one, and sometimes in the other. I do however note that some other Strickfingerhut users do, and advocate always keeping the background color in the same eyelet regardless of its relative dominance on any one row. Again, experimentation is your friend.

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Hmm. Not quite happy.

I've finished the trim around the armholes and bottom edges of the front of the khaki vest. O.K. so far there. I've gotten well into the trim along the buttonhole band/neck edge. Not so good.

I wanted to move the buttonholes from between the band and patterned area as shown on the original, to being centered in a true buttonhole band. So I cast on for a wider buttonhole band, and planned to work Neatby's Magic Buttonholes (sideways). But the proportions of the wider band, plus the odd narrowing I had to do to accommodate the V-neck, along with what will be the sheer weight of this center section when buttoned (four thicknesses of Aran weight yarn) is making me reconsider. You can see for yourself:

The buttonhole band has been turned under so that you only see the temporary stitches marking the place of a single column of buttonholes. There's a comparable set tucked inside on what will be the facing.

I think tonight I might rip back the beginnings of this front band and start it again.

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Mailing off the kids' summer camp registration forms means summer is edging ever closer.

For the past 6 summers, Older Daughter has gone to sleep-away camp in New Hampshire. Last year Smaller Daughter joined her for a couple of weeks. They adore the place.

Roads End Farm is a small, horsemanship camp in Chesterfield, not far from Keene. It's approximately 50 girls at a time, 15 staffers from around the world, and a herd of around 75 horses - mostly farm-bred Morgans, with a sprinkling of rescues and donated horses. Roads End has been around for 35 years, always run by the the Woodman family. It's a rustic place, sort of summer-on-grandpa's farm for kids who have no relatives in the country.

The girls do a lot of riding (of course) - all non-competitive English flat, with small group ring instruction and/or trail rides 6 days a week. Here's Elder Daughter on Ides, and Smaller Daughter on Goldie, both showing off their new-learned abilities on pick-up day. Note that two weeks before this picture was taken, Smaller Daughter knew horses only from picture books and TV.

Riders of all ability levels are welcome, from kids who arrive with their own mounts right down to kids who have never seen a horse up close and personal before. The girls are matched in teams of two with a horse of suitable level. Beginners for example are teamed with geriatric animals of sweet disposition (Goldie, last summer was well into her equine senior citizen years). There's no jumping, and techniques are more geared to riding for pleasure. Safety is a prime concern, both for the campers and the horses. The fact that so many of the horses are still in good condition and working with campers at advanced horse-ages is testament to the high level of animal care at the farm.

The girls provide all the care for their shared mounts - feeding, grooming, AND shoveling. Each girl gets to ride for half the morning, the other half being devoted to farm type chores in the barns, paddocks, vegetable gardens, kitchen or dorms. The afternoons include swimming instruction or free swim in a nearby lake, arts and crafts, and other typical camp-type activities. Hair dryers, TVs and electronics are banned (except for small MP3 players used during quiet times), but my own video gaming/Anime rats don't long for a single pixel while they are there.

All in all, it's a small, and very companionable place that's so much fun the participants don't realize they are learning big lessons about responsibility and teamwork. I hear that Roads End still has spots open for this summer. If you are looking for a good place for pony-crazy girls ages 8-high school - I strongly recommend the experience.

Oh. Knitting content. My kids bring their knitting to camp with them. That's where Alex works on her B. Walker Learn to Knit afghan project. She's accumulated small knitting circles around her each summer.

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I've played around some with methods of producing and applying the edge finish to the khaki vest. First I tried the separately knit/sewn on band method, using a couple of different approaches to the seaming (fold band longitudinally, sew the band up, then apply it; sew on both sides in one pass; sew on the display side, then do a separate seam to affix the facing side). Of all of them, the last method worked best, but it was the most effort intensive of them all.

So I looked further. Plain I-Cord (knit on or applied) was too narrow to stabilize the edge, and two courses of it would have been too bulky. I didn't like the way that picking up along the edge then knitting out looked - especially along the curve of the armhole.

Even more experiments ensued. Finally I landed on knitting-on a strip parallel to the edge, then going back and seaming down the free side on the inside of the piece. Doing that I could produce an edge of any desired width, go around curves and even plan on mitering the vest point corner. Here's a swatch with a mitered corner. Note that I haven't sewn down the facing on the inside yet, but natural stockinette curl is keeping it nice and neat. (For some, the inside seaming might be optional, but I plan on doing it on my finished piece).

To miter the corner of this 8-stitch strip, I used short rows. Here's how I did it:

Applied 8-stitch Strip Facing with Mitered Corner

Start with the public side of the work facing you, holding it with the bulk of the piece on the left, so that you're working up the right side of the thing (upside down from the picture above). Using straight needles, cast on 9 stitches, then pick up one stitch in the edge of the piece being finished. While the strip is 9 stitches wide, one is consumed during joining, so the part that protrudes is really only 8 stitches wide.

Row 1 (wrong side): P8, k1.
Row 2: S1, k6, ssk, pick up one stitch in edge of swatch
Row 3: S1, p7, k1

Repeat Rows 2 and 3 until you reach the corner, having just completed an odd number (wrong side row)

Row 4: S1, k6, wrap and turn.
Row 5: Slip the wrapped stitch, p6, wrap and turn
Row 6: Ignoring any previously wrapped stitches, S1, k5, wrap and turn
Row 7: Ignoring any previously wrapped stitches, Slip the wrapped stitch, p4, wrap and turn
Row 8: Ignoring any previously wrapped stitches, S1, k3, wrap and turn
Row 9: Ignoring any previously wrapped stitches, S1, p2, wrap and turn
Row 10: Ignoring any previously wrapped stitches, S1, k2, knit the next stitch along with the loop around its base, turn
Row 11: Ignoring any previously wrapped stitches, S the stitch you just knit, p2, purl the next stitch along with the loop around its base, turn
Row 12: Ignoring any previously wrapped stitches, S1, k3, knit the next stitch along with the loop around its base, turn
Row 13: Ignoring any previously wrapped stitches, Slip the stitch you just knit, p4, purl the next stitch along with the loop around its base, turn
Row 14: Ignoring any previously wrapped stitches, S1, k5, knit the next stitch along with the loop around its base, turn
Row 15: Ignoring any previously wrapped stitches, Slip the stitch you just knit, p6, purl the next stitch along with the loop around its base, turn

The corner is complete, return to repeating Rows 2 and 3. Optional finish - seam down the inside edge of this facing.

I've stated applying this same edging to the armholes of my vest (having previously seamed the shoulders).

I plan to do the bottom edge next, incorporating the mitered corner on the vest points. But I haven't played with the buttonhole band treatments yet. Sadly, I have misplaced my copy of InkKNitters. It's here. Somewhere... Weekend plans include tossing my knitting library to find it.

Oh. Unless a monsoon is upon us, weekend plans also include attending the annual Gore Place Sheepshearing Festival in Waltham, Massachusetts. Not a big festival as fiber fairs go, but very local and lots of fun. Look for me with both Elder and Smaller Daughter in tow.

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I have finished the major pieces of Older Daughter's khaki waistcoat (adapted from the 1940 pattern hosted by the V&A Museum). Once I had the right gauge and measurements, they knit up quite quickly. Before I begin sewing them together add the edging, some serious industrial-grade blocking has to take place. Right now they've got that larval curled-up caterpillar look. Here is one of the two front panels:

I am quite pleased with the way the cable on the neck edge worked out.

The cable itself is one pictured in Stanfield's New Knitting Stitch Library. I've got quite a few stitch treasuries on my shelves. I leaf through them all, but when time comes to actually employ a stitch - this is one of the few that gets knit from most often.

The next step (after blocking) will be to knit and apply the bands around the armholes and the front. The original pattern suggests that the knitter work 8-stitch bands with slip stitch selvages right and left - 20 inches long for each arm, and 60 inches for the front. The bands are supposed to be folded in half and steamed flat, then sewn on, leaving periodic gaps on the appropriate side to create the buttonholes. Very labor-intensive.

I think I'm going to experiment. I'll knit a body-like sacrificial swatch and some pilot-project edging to test out various configurations for creation and assembly.

For example - why not knit the edge onto the body pieces on the front side, incorporating a column of purls to make a turning edge down the center, then fold along that line and baste the free selvage down on the inside?

Or why not experiment with an extra-wide i-cord style strip, knit directly on?

Or how about picking up along the edge and knitting out, using mitering to make the waistcoat corners?

And while I'm at it - why not figure out how to move the buttonhole so that it's centered in the edging rather than floating between the body and the border element? Lucy Neatby has an ultra-nifty buttonhole and band trick I've been dying to try. She sells leaflets and videos and holds workshops explaining the technique, and wrote a summary of it for the Fall '04 edition of InKnitters.

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After yesterday's post on my Galaga Hat, I've gotten a couple of questions about the method for working back and forth seamlessly to make a tube. In specific, some people wanted to see illustrated how I make the wrap and turn join. I try to oblige them (click on pix to see them larger):

I've shown just the knit-side round. The purl side round works in exactly the same way. Work to the marker, making sure to work the last stitch before the marker along with the loop around its base, shift the marker over, wrap the stitch after the marker, flip the piece over, return the marker to the right-hand needle, and continue with the rest of the round.

Why go through all this trouble?

I don't have enough yarn to strand around the entire piece. Nor do my motifs span the entire circumference of my hat. I am in effect working spot Intarsia motifs (actually I'm stranding between them, but limiting that stranding to the spot motifs). Rather than cut the yarn at the end of each motif, or stretch it back to the beginning of the spot design on each row, I am working the equivalent of flat knitting - going back and forth, alternating rows of knit and rows of purl. When I purl or knit back to my spot motif, my contrasting color ends are on the correct side of the motif for the next round. But I hate sewing up, and want to make a hat without seams. Rather than knit this totally flat (a valid option), I'm using wrap and turn to make the join at the end of each round.

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I'm back in place after a horrific spate of work-related deadlines, followed hard by a much needed vacation and its attendant flood of post-vacation laundry. We visited with family; took in the warm, sunny, Florida weather (in spite of all the locals shivering in what they perceived to be a cold snap); played golf; ate way too much; watched the kids splash at beach and pool; and tried to stay away from work and eMail.

I even had time to do a little bit of knitting, but I did not bring Older Daughter's vest with me. I have finished the back and am about half-way through the vest fronts. With just the armhole/neck half left, a fair bit of blocking would be required before I could play with finishing and adding on the trim. Since there is generally not enough room on aircraft for aggressive blocking (or aggression of any sort), I left that project home and took the Galaga hat instead.

As you can see from this one-handed shot, I'm moving through the thing. It's slow going, with a fair bit of more than two color stranding involved over 9 stitches per inch.

I used a provisional cast-on, then knit a plain gray self-facing about three inches deep (approximately the height of the first two courses of the motifs. Then I worked two purl rows as a turning edge, and the white triangles as the first visible bit that will be seen after the self-facing is fused back into the hat body. I placed two white ships on either side of the hat.

On this side the first course of bug-enemies will be in teal, using the larger bonus ones from the game - one splayed and one flapping. The other side has three, set somewhat skew to the ship. After this course is done, I'll fuse the facing, then do a decrease and work the next tier. It will also be the larger bonus enemies, but in the other color combo. After that will come another round of decreases, and several tiers of the shorter non-bonus bugs. In between each tier will be another decrease round.

My biggest complication is that I am very short on the colors. I'm using scraps of Frog Tree Alpaca left over from Older Daughter's rainbow hat and scarf. That's why the enemies aren't marching in full continuous rows around the whole hat. It's also why I'm not working this truly in the round, although the piece is on circs. Yes, the piece is seamless, but I'm muddling my way through a variant combo of stranding and Intarsia in the round. On motif bearing rows, I'm working a knit row across all my stitches. When I reach the end of what would be the round instead of going forward and continuing in knit, I wrap that first stitch, return it to the left hand needle, then turn the work and head back the way I came. When I reach the end of this purl round, I purl the final stitch along with its wrap, wrap the next stitch (on the next needle). Then I return that wrapped stitch to the left hand needle, flip the work over, and head back on the knit side. When I get to the last stitch of the row, I knit it along with its wrap, wrap the next - and so on.

What I'm getting at the joining point is a bit of a thickening that were I working in a lighter color, might be more visible. But in my plain charcoal gray, it's not very evident. This may not be among the approved methods for working something seamless on circs, but employing both knit and purl rows, but for me and for this project it's fine.

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